was a

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star " admiral" rank. It is often rega ...

in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He committed suicide after facing imminent defeat during the Battle of Manila. Units under his command committed the Manila massacre.

Life and career

Iwabuchi was a native of what is now part of the city of Sanjō,

Niigata Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area at . Niigata Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture and ...

. He graduated from the 43rd class of the

Imperial Japanese Naval Academy The was a school established to train line officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima in 1888. Students st ...

in December 1915 ranked 13th out of 96 cadets, and on graduation continued on to naval artillery school to become a specialist in that field. He served as a midshipman on the cruiser , which made a long-distance navigational training voyage to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

and the

South Seas Mandate The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the " South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following W ...

in 1915. As an ensign in 1918, he was assigned to the cruiser and as a first lieutenant he was assigned to the destroyer ''Umikaze'' in 1919. In 1920, after completion of Torpedo Warfare School, he was assigned to the Yokosuka Air Group until the end of 1922. In the 1930s, Iwabuchi served as chief gunnery officer on a number of vessels, including the cruisers in 1930, in 1931, and in 1932, and the battleship in 1933. In 1934–1935, he was assigned to

Kure Naval District was the second of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included the Inland Sea of Japan and the Pacific coasts of southern Honshū from Wakayama to Yamaguchi prefectures, eastern and norther ...

and was in charge of

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form o ...

. Iwabuchi was promoted to captain in November 1937, and was given command of the

seaplane tender A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...

in 1938. In April 1941 he was assigned command of the training vessel .

World War II

At the time of the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

in 1941, Iwabuchi was captain of the seaplane tender . He was reassigned to the staff of the

Combined Fleet The was the main sea-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a permanent organization, but a temporary force formed for the duration of a conflict or major naval maneuvers from various units norm ...

on 25 March 1942, and was subsequently given command of the battleship on 20 April 1942. He commanded ''Kirishima'' in the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...

in June 1942, but ''Kirishima'' was sunk in the

Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, sometimes referred to as the Third and Fourth Battles of Savo Island, the Battle of the Solomons, the Battle of Friday the 13th, or, in Japanese sources, the , took place from 12 to 15 November 1942, and was t ...

on 15 November of the same year. A week later, on 22 November, Iwabuchi was reassigned to command the 11th Air Fleet in charge of air operations over

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...

and

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

. Iwabuchi returned to the

Yokosuka Naval District was the first of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included Tokyo Bay and the Pacific coasts of central and northern Honshū from the Kii Peninsula to Shimokita Peninsula. Its headquarters ...

on 10 February 1943, and was promoted to

on 1 May. On 5 May, he was assigned to the Personnel and Recruiting Department at Maizuru Naval District. This would normally have been a dead-end position to his career; however, the increasingly desperate war situation provided Iwabuchi with a final opportunity. On 1 November 1944, he was given command of the 3rd Southern Escort Fleet and on 17 November, its accompanying ground force, the 31st Naval Base Force, and ordered to the Philippines, which were then under impending threat of Allied invasion. Iwabuchi was assigned command of the defenses of the city of

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

. Once American forces had landed on

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

and had begun converging on Manila, welcomed and assisted by Filipino troops of the

Philippine Commonwealth Army The Philippine Army was established on December 21, 1935, as the Army of the Philippines, with a general headquarters in Manila, and units and formations based throughout the provinces of the Philippines. The Philippine Army was initially o ...

and Philippine Constabulary, the Japanese supreme commander for operations in the Philippines, Lt.-General

Tomoyuki Yamashita was a Japanese officer and convicted war criminal, who was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore, with his accomplishment of conquerin ...

gave Iwabuchi a direct order to withdraw from Manila without combat. Yamashita wanted to consolidate his forces, and to avoid being trapped in

urban warfare Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both the operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians a ...

in downtown Manila with close to a million civilians. However, Iwabuchi repeatedly refused to obey orders. Citing shame at having lost , Iwabuchi stated that he could redeem himself only by holding his position to the death. Together with the under-equipped and ill-disciplined 15,000 marines and 4,000

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

stragglers under his command, he found several good defensive positions in the historic

Intramuros Intramuros (Latin for "inside the walls") is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila. Present-day ...

area of the old city of Manila, including the massive walls of colonial Fort Santiago. During the Allied artillery bombardment of Iwabuchi's positions, thousands of civilians were killed. Thousands more were killed in the crossfire, and thousands were killed by Japanese forces in reprisal for the Allied attacks in what came to be called the " Manila Massacre". After many days of building-to-building combat, more than 16,000 Japanese defenders were killed, and by 26 February Iwabuchi committed suicide at his command post, using a

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

pointed to his mouth, although his body was never positively identified. He was posthumously promoted to vice admiral.

Portrayal

Eddie Garcia Eduardo Verchez Garcia (; May 2, 1929 – June 20, 2019), known colloquially as Manoy, was a Filipino actor, television personality, film director and producer. With almost 600 film and television roles and a career spanning seven decades, he ...

portrayed Admiral Iwabuchi in the 1968 film ''

Manila, Open City ''Manila, Open City'' (International Title: ''American Tank Force'') is a 1968 war film written, produced, and directed by Eddie Romero about the Battle of Manila in World War II. The film was screened upon the launching of the National Film Arch ...

''.

References

*Fuller, Richard. 1992. ''Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai''. London: Arms and Armor.

External links

Pacific Pacific War Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iwabuchi, Sanji 1893 births 1945 deaths Japanese mass murderers Military personnel from Niigata Prefecture Imperial Japanese Navy admirals Battle of Midway Japanese military personnel killed in World War II Japanese admirals of World War II Japanese military personnel who committed suicide Suicides by firearm in the Philippines War criminals